Zarina Sabir Company easyJet
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Job Title Group Finance Controller
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aths was my thing at school, so after my A Levels, Accountancy seemed like the natural choice. I qualified at 21 before deciding that I was more interested in working in-house to shape the financials of a company than staying within Practice. I moved into Industry at a global IT company CSC and later to AstraZeneca, before moving to easyJet over 13 years ago. I came in as a Finance Manager, doing various roles to support our Engineering and Operations functions. My first big Management role was as the Group Chief Accountant, where I jumped from leading a team of two to sixty overnight – quite an intro to people management! I was lucky to act as the Finance Lead kicking off big projects to take us into the FTSE100. That was a real turning point, because I moved from a purely financial role to linking the numbers with broader strategy. This was followed by a couple of years’ secondment on our future finance transformation project, and currently I am the Group Financial Controller leading the auditing and reporting function. I’ve had a brilliant journey at easyJet, and I hope people see me as an example of how you can move up and have a diverse career in finance.
What do you find most rewarding in your job? No day is the same. Reporting cycles can be mundane, but this sector is so dynamic that you’re constantly learning and developing. What advice would you give the next generation of women entering your sector? Whenever an opportunity arises, take it; whenever you have an opinion, voice it. If you take that leap of faith, you’ll probably surprise yourself and realise you are capable of more than you know. If you weren’t in travel, what would you be doing? I’ve always wanted to help people develop and love children, so I think it would have to be a primary school teacher. What challenge have you learned the most from in your career? This year has been a huge challenge, as we learn to cope with working remotely
and face unprecedented financial challenges as an industry. You need to all be in it together, and remain positive even when things are relentless. What have you done to promote diversity within your organisation? I’m part of our Shine programme for women in leadership, and am involved in our D&I strategy as well. More informally, given how male-dominated finance can be, I’ve always tried to role-model work-life balance and demonstrate to other team members that you can balance work with having children and be flexible. What do you hope the travel industry will look like in 5 years’ time? I believe it will be adapting to the flexibility both constomers and people within the industry want. When it’s safe for everyone to escape away, we will have a rebound in bookings as we can see there is pent up demand, and how we adapt will be key.
QUICKFIRE What qualities are the most valuable in a leader? Decisiveness, compassion, being able to lead through uncertainty and being authentic and humble as well as having credibility. Being the same person you are in the office as well as at home.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen or heard recently? I am about to go on maternity leave shortly with a set of twins due…! The amount of advice and interesting facts I have been given has been fascinating and it’s been eye opening how common they are.